LimeWire Music Blog

The end of the present decade is only days away, so our Frank Deserto has undertaken the massive task of presenting the highs and lows of each year. He continues this series with a look back on 2004. Hit us with your memories in the comment section.

2004 saw a remarkable shift in the musical climate.  After churning for countless years in the underground, indie rock exploded, catapulting cult artists into the mainstream. Rap-metal seemed to die overnight, while a slew of smaller, less cohesive bands enjoyed success beyond their humble dreams.  No longer did “indie” stand for independent, as these artists became household names. It was almost uncanny to watch college artists become overnight successes, playing to millions on Saturday Night Live and overselling venues across the globe.

As someone who has never really embraced “indie rock” as a genre or a mainstream movement (as some will see as these wrap-ups continue), I think 2004 was certainly ripe for the choosing.  So many irresistible tracks and records from bands I normally wouldn’t listen to. Everything in the underground as we knew it just seemed to fall in line, and music was never the same again.  The ’00s had finally, for better or for worse, found their musical stride.  Let’s take a peek, shall we?

News:

1. Britney Spears married Jason Allen Alexander, a childhood friend.  Their marriage is annulled two days later.
2. Valfar, vocalist of black-metal band Windir, died of hypothermia in a blizzard. It doesn’t get more \m/ than that, folks.
3. Usher releases Confessions, which sells 1.1 million copies in one week, becoming the only R&B artist to accomplish such a feat.
4. Creed splits! Hooray!
5. Deaths: Ray Charles, John Balance (Coil), Ol’ Dirty Bastard (Wu Tang Clan), Dimebag Darrell(Pantera), John McGeoch(Magazine, Siouxsie and the Banshees), Laura Branigan, Skeeter Davis, Johnny Ramone (The Ramones).
6. Shittiest band ever: The Dave Matthews Band dump 800lbs of human waste over a Chicago bridge. Intending to unload it into the river, the feces lands all over a tour boat.  Lawsuits follow swiftly!
7. After 37 years, former Beach Boy Brian Wilson finally releases Smile.
8. The 14^th annual Lollapalooza festival, scheduled to take place on July 17^th, is canceled, citing poor ticket sales. The impressive lineup featured Morrissey, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, PJ Harvey, The Coup, Wilco, The Killers, and more.  Meanwhile, The Cure’s Curiosa Festival, featuring Interpol, Mogwai, Thursday, The Rapture, Muse, Auf Der Maur, Cursive, and Scarling, stays the course as the summer’s touring music festival.
9. Both Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan release their recording debuts. The world watches in bewilderment.
10. After years of legal trouble, the Nirvana box set With the Lights Out finally sees the light of day, overwhelming fans with dozens of demos, live tracks, and B-sides.  The Cure and Siouxsie and the Banshees also issue B-sides boxsets spanning their entire career.

Notable Albums:

1. Nick Cave- Abattoir Blues/The Lyre of Orpheus
After 2003’s Nocturama, I was worried that Cave had lost both Blixa Bargeld and his edge, fully giving himself over to the soft sway of adult contemporary music. However, Cave surprised us all with this massive undertaking, two separate albums contained in one package, each recorded with one of The Bad Seeds’ drummers behind the kit. Abattoir Blues is the more venomous and energetic of the pair, complete with bombastic gospel choirs, heavy rhythms, and dirty romps, while The Lyre of Orpheus is a more atmospheric, dark, and passionate record, the perfect counterpoint. It was hard to dislike this record, as its sprawl catered to fans both new and old.

Standout tracks: “Cannibal’s Hymn,” “There She Goes My Beautiful World,” “O Children,” “Easy Money”

2. IAMX – Kiss and Swallow
In the earlier part of the decade, multi-instrumentalist and technical whiz-kid Chris Corner hinted at something great to come, inching closer with each Sneaker Pimps release. Finally, in 2004, Corner unveiled IAMX, a project informed by the darker new wave styling of Depeche Mode and Fad Gadget, tarting it up with post-modern sleaze and a glittery visage for good measure. As striking as this debut is (stellar enough to land the no. 2 spot), his best work was yet to come.

Standout tracks: “Your Joy Is My Low,” “Kiss and Swallow,” “Sailor”

3. Morrissey – You Are the Quarry
After a series of commercial and critical failures in the ‘90s, Morrissey spent the first third of the new decade struggling with label issues and lawsuit aftershocks, disappearing from the musical world after 1997’s Maladjusted.  When Sanctuary signed and encouraged the singer to release new material, the result was one of the most biting, majestic, and vital records he had ever released.

Standout tracks: “Irish Blood, English Heart,” “The World Is Full of Crashing Bores,” “Don’t Make Fun of Daddy’s Voice” (B-side)

4. Lisa Gerrard & Patrick Cassidy – Immortal Memory
Lisa Gerrard remains one of the most singular voices in western music, and this particular offering, a collaboration with classical composer Patrick Cassidy, is a beautifully ambient and spiritual affair.  Spanning three languages, Gerrard’s vocals are still as powerful and evocative as ever before, and the music is equally entrancing.

Standout tracks: “Elegy,” “Abwoon (Our Father)”

5. DeVotchKa – How It Ends
It’s taken an unfortunate amount of time for this Colorado-based band to gain the recognition they deserve for their hybrid sound of cabaret, dark folk, and gypsy rock. This record, arguably their best, was a sleeper hit of 2004, seeing exposure from both the Everything’s Illuminated and Little Miss Sunshine trailers over the next two years. Better late than never, huh?

Standout tracks: “Twenty-Six Temptations,” “How It Ends”

6. The Faint – Wet From Birth
Moving in a more guitar driven direction, The Faint’s fourthrecord still retains the dance-punk/new wave edge that put them on the map just a few years earlier. However, instead of releasing another record full to the brim with darkwave dance jams, the band manages to incorporate the jerky and abrasive rhythms of Gang of Four and Bush Tetras.

Standout tracks: “Birth,” “Drop Kick the Punks,” “Southern Belles In London Sing,” (a.k.a. B-Movie’s “Remembrance Day”)

7. Blonde Redhead – Misery Is a Butterfly
After spending years floating in the independent music scene, Blonde Redhead finally catch a break by signing with 4AD records. Not only does this prove to be fulfilling in a commercial sense, the band adopts the telltale 4AD sound, relishing in dreampop strings and synthesizers, producing a incredibly vibrant and lush record. Though the move may have left some fans of the band’s previous records in the dust, it was one that saw the band finally grow into their own shell, even if it is a little less “unique.”

Standout tracks: “Elephant Woman,” “Equus”

8. Björk – Medúlla
The Icelandic siren’s descent into insular madness continues with Medúlla, a record almost entirely constructed from vocal samples, courtesy of Mike Patton (Faith No More), Rahzel (The Roots), and Robert Wyatt (The Soft Machine), to name a few. Not only is it her most challenging record, it’s also her most political. Though I didn’t care much for it upon its release, Medúlla becomes more rewarding over years of cautious listening.

Standout tracks: “Where Is the Line,” “Who is It”

9. The Arcade Fire- Funeral
Continuing the indie rock influx of 2004, this giant Canadian collective made a tremendous splash with their debut, which almost seemed to drop out of thin air. Hard to believe that such a seemingly minor release could catch fire so quickly, but something about the album’s euphoric, yet equally morose sound just clicked with audiences everywhere. Right place, right time, right record.

Standout tracks: “Rebellion (Lies),” “Wake Up,” “Neighborhood #3 (Power Out)”

10. The Killers- Hot Fuss
You know, I won’t front.  Though the Killers have served up several disappointing (and pretty damn embarrassing) follow-ups, their 2004 debut record was a rather refreshing burst of fresh air on pop radio, which for the first half of the decade was dominated by overly aggressive rap metal and a slew of teen pop princesses. Though a lot of this record is disposable fun, it’s hard to ignore its many points of reference, including Duran Duran, David Bowie, and New Order.

Standout tracks: “Mr. Brightside,” “Smile Like You Mean It,” “Jenny Was a Friend of Mine”

Unstoppable Tracks:

1. The Walkmen – “The Rat”
Kicking off with a snarling, reverb-drenched guitar line, kicking into overdrive within a matter of seconds, this song is everything I loved about both the indie rock and post-punk revival scenes, wrapped up in one vitriolic package. Not since the Violent Femmes has a song been so incredibly catchy, yet so full of righteous fury.

2. PJ Harvey – “Shame”
While Uh Huh Her was considered a return to Miss Polly Jean’s spiteful, gritty rock sound, that attitude just didn’t strike me the same way it once did. In the new millennium, PJ Harvey had matured, and I almost feel as if this record is a regression rather than a growth. However, this particular track stands out from the rest. A surprisingly short, minimal, organ driven dirge, a pretty song lost among an otherwise unfocused record.

3. The Cure – “This Morning”
How unfortunate: the best track from The Cure’s otherwise lackluster self-titled release was embarrassingly not available on the U.S. edition of the record, instead slapped on vinyl and as a B-side as an afterthought. In actuality, this seven-minute number, complete with a rare spoken word bit, is one of the best things The Cure have recorded in recent years.

4. TV On the Radio – “Staring at the Sun”
I’ve never really given into TV on the Radio, but this track was so infectious, I couldn’t help but love it. Swinging and soulful, yet retaining a more informed dream-pop sound, this track shifts in and out of coherence right from the start, but that’s just part of its charm.  I’ll always cling to this song as the definitive TVOTR moment.

5. Franz Ferdinand – “Take Me Out”/Modest Mouse – “Float On”
I know this is cheating, but these two songs are not only similar, but they both stand out as two refreshing singles from two bands I otherwise don’t care for at all. The stars must have aligned just right in 2004, allowing both bands to construct perfect, yet well-informed pop tunes.

6. Cobra Killer – “Mund Auf – Augen Zu”
As part of Alec Empire’s digital hardcore movement, the duo that comprised Cobra Killer already had a knack for bombastic rhythms and destructive sound collages.  However, this project had a more playful edge than many of their own allies, and was one of the few DHR to continue after the label cut back on bands.  Meanwhile, this track, plucked from 76/77, sounds more in line with the Neue Deutsche Welle movement of the 1980s, complete with German punk and electronic sensibility.

7. The Darkness – “I Believe In a Thing Called Love”
Daring to tread in the waters of rock and roll excess, The Darkness broke on the scene in 2004 with an incredibly infectious and downright fun single.  Sure, it’s a pastiche of both Queen and AC/DC, almost to the point of novelty, but every time this song comes on in a bar, you better believe that patrons everywhere sing along to every word, complete with terrible falsetto.

8. Rachel Goswell – “Plucked”
Though this former shoegaze chanteuse’s truly glorious days had passed with the dissolution of Slowdive and the formation of Mojave 3, Miss Goswell still had a knack for a gorgeous melody, backed by an even more dazzling vocal performance. Plucked (literally) from her solo debut, “Plucked” would be the among the last pieces recorded by Goswell, before her longstanding hearing ailments became too much to bear.

9. Death From Above 1979 – “Black History Month”
After receiving a serious blow in their momentum due to name conflicts with James Murphy’s DFA Records, this Canadian dance-punk outfit still managed to release one of the best singles of 2004, the raw and dirty “Black History Month,” one of the catchiest and least manic tracks the band had to offer. If the rest of their album sounded more like this track, it would have been a resounding success.

10. The Magnetic Fields-  “I Wish I Had an Evil Twin”
After 1999’s epic 69 Love Songs, I felt as if the band had peaked, going out with all guns blazing. Meanwhile Stephin Merrit and Claudia Gonson kept busy with The 6ths and Future Bible Heroes, all but ignoring the Magnetic Fields as an outlet. However, five years later, the band returned with another concept record featuring tunes beginning with the letter “I.”  The record was unfortunately a bit underwhelming, especially in comparison to their previous effort, but this track still shines with Merrit’s trademark beauty, romanticism, and wit.

Previous Decade in Review Posts:

• 2000
• 2001
• 2002
• 2003